The Final Duel of Dumbledore and Grindelwald
by Worldisquiethere
Summary: After their fateful departure many years ago, Former friends Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald meet once more for their final duel.


**AN: This is the second version of the story, expanded and also polished a little bit to make it seem more realistic. **

I once thought differently about the world. Once, when I was young and foolish, I believed that Magic was Might. I was drawn to power like a reckless fool, hopelessly chasing after for something I've lost. To see my family one last time, but the lure of power is a path of corruption.

It was true. For forty-five years I turned a blind eye as my former friend slowly became the darkest wizard in history. I was told of his doings through whispers that traveled from his doings across the world. A mention here and there until his conquest turned into a war spanning not only our world but the muggle world as well. A world war for them, a global war for us.

Yes, I, Albus Dumbledore, was responsible for, as the muggles called it, World War Two. I started it. I spread the seed of power through my one-time friend Gellert Grindelwald's mind.

'_For the Greater Good_." That's what we had called it. That's how we justified it. Wizard dominance for not only the greater good of the muggle community but our own as well. I had once believed that the power we wielded gave us the right to rule.

Was it really my fault? I believe maybe, if someone were to one day know the whole story, they would see that perhaps Grindelwald did start it. I hope in my hearts of hearts that this is true, but I still take the blame. Just because one is part of the problem, doesn't mean it's not completely one's fault.

The Hallow, the _Hallows_. That is what drove me. They are a desperate man's dream, as I found, and perhaps still find, myself to be. Three are the Hallows. The Invisibility Cloak. Yes, I could turn myself invisible to the naked eye, but to have one that could block spells? Even those, yes I could protect myself from, but to at least complete the trio would be my aim. The location of it now is unknown to me.

The Resurrection Stone, the one I sought for so long. I wished to revive my dead mother and father and my dear, dead sister, Ariana. To Grindelwald, he wanted an army of Inferi, which in the end he procured by other means. I once saw a ring on the hand of a student, Tom Riddle, which had a stone that I believed I saw, contained the mark of the Deathly Hallows. However, knowing of Tom's…_history _it may be his way of supporting the cause of Grindelwald. I will most likely never know of the true nature of the ring, now that Tom Riddle, or as he once decided to title himself, _Lord Voldemort_, has disappeared in the last few years since he finished his magical education.

Finally, of the Hallows, there is the Elder Wand. I had heard the rumors while teaching in the halls of Hogwarts of a wand. A wand that the rising power of Grindelwald had obtained I have never doubted the legend of the Deathly Hallows, but I had trouble accepting this fact. Could he have actually obtained the Elder Wand? Eventually I learned to believe it. Believe it and fear it. They say he feared me too. He believed the only one who could stop him could be I. Officially the war has been going on for eight years. Unofficially, longer. And I let muggles and wizard alike die. Now, I am ready to begin rebuilding.

But not until I defeat my best friend, the darkest wizard in history wielding the strongest wand in existence, in battle.

The streets of Berlin are destroyed. The results of muggle weapons in their war. And I stand fifteen feet below the ground in one of the craters face to face with Gellert Grindelwald. At the pinnacle of the cater of a small group of wizards. A group that had, albeit my reluctance, had followed me on my mission to defeat Grindelwald. Along the other side of the crater, a larger tangle of Grindelwald's followers, held at bay only by his command.

"I am the strong one now, Dumbledore!" announces Grindelwald. "You wasted too much time at your precious school. Even as the best wizards from around the world come to defeat me, even as the ministries of these eastern countries send their best to destroy me, they were missing their key combatant. You, Dumbledore! You've single-handedly let the world down!"

"Don't listen to him, Albus! You're a great wizard, don't listen to him!" screams Elphias Doge, ever the loyal friend.

I hold up my hand. There was no need for rebuttal. "Gellert, there is one of two was this can end. Neither would be to your liking."

Grindelwald flares with anger. "No, there is one way this can end! Surely you have heard what I did when we parted all those years ago? You know that I have obtained the ultimate wand! The Deathstick, the Wand of Destiny, the Elder Wand!"

I consider it. It's true, in legend it is unbeatable. But wand lore is beyond not only me but I know Grindelwald hasn't a clue either. "I don't look to defeat to the wand. Just its master."

"So is that what this is about? You want to kill me and take the Elder Wand for yourself? Why bother? Only those of power can unite the three Hallows and conquer Death. Only I can have that ultimate power. In fact, did you know I have discovered the location of the other two Hallows? After my victory over you, I will collect them and truly become Master of Death and of the entire world!"

I doubt this statement. Had he finally discovered the location of the other Hallows he would immediately seek them out? No he is bluffing.

"If you knew where the Hallows were, you would already have united them. Gellert, you're wrong. I do not wish to posses any of the Hallows and certainly not to unite them together. Not anymore. I realize now that a man in a million can unite the Hallows.

"Do you know why you can never posses the three Deathly Hallows? Because all you believe in is power. Gellert, it doesn't take a powerful man to unite the Hallows. I have finally figured out what it meant. Do you remember, Gellert? Do you remember how we speculated on what it meant? Master of Death. Conqueror? Vanquisher? No. I finally sorted it out. The Master of Death is who doesn't run from death, he accepts it. You've tried to use these Hallows to take control and next you've made it apparent that you will assemble the Deathly Hallows and rule your Wizarding Empire for eternity. You stand before me no more powerful then when you left the halls of Durmstrang."

"ENOUGH!" screams Grindelwald. "No more talk, Dumbledore! Now we see who truly is the Master of Death! Let's see if you can match the power of the Elder Wand! For the Greater Good!" he screams.

Above the crater, rallying around his words, Grindelwald's supporters chant, "For the Greater Good!"

He lashes out with the wand. From the tip of the wand emerges a black spell. It shoots out and runs to encase me in a pitch black surrounding. I use my own wand and strike the darkness. Cracks of the brightest light appear through the darkness and the spell dissipates. I throw a golden spell of my own. Grindelwald dodges and throw back a purple spell flying a lightning speed. It nearly hits me, but at the last second I fly into the air, hitting just above the perimeter of the crater.

I throw a spell as I fall back into the crater. It hits Grindelwald. He falls to the floor and thrashes around, throwing multicolored spells around wildly. He finally threw off the spell and produced a silver shield around himself. I threw several powerful spells that hit the shield and fly off harmlessly, making only deep gong-like sounds as each hit until the very last one which finally made a scratch in the shield.

"See, Dumbledore?" smiled Grindelwald from behind his silvery shield, "Do you still really think you can defeat me?"

"Well, from what I heard, Gellert, you feared meeting me. You went out into other countries. Russia, Romania, Italy, and even here, your home of Germany. You established your power in there and other places, but what about Britain? I know why you didn't try to take over Britain. Because it was my home. Because I lived there, it was under my protection. You didn't want to risk an encounter with your old friend."

Rather than answer, Grindelwald throws out another spell. The spell comes down like a whip and hits me across the chest.

I can feel the searing pain in my chest as the spell tares through my flesh and leaves a gash dangerously close to my heart. I try and throw another spell but Grindelwald spins in place and disapparated.

"Albus!" cries a female voice from above. "Where's he gone?"

I look out the corner of my eye to see it is the young woman Minerva McGonagall, a former student of mine who was an exceptional witch and particularly good in the subject I teach, Transfiguration.

But I don't answer. I knew he hadn't gone. While scanning the surrounding area, I notice that above, the two sides are getting restless. I see one of the Grindelwald's supporters, an ugly man with matted black hair, Nott, begin to draw his wand.

"_Stum-_" Nott begins

For the first time in the duel, I speak the spell aloud, as I act on instinct instead of thought. "_Expelliarmus!_"

The jet of red light approaches Nott and right before it hits him Grindelwald appears at the top of the crater and deflects the disarming spell. Although the spell is diverted, I still see Nott drop his wand in his fright at seeing Grindelwald apparate in front of him.

I conjure a large wave of water and send it towards Grindelwald. When it is only inches away from him, Grindelwald turns the water into piercing needles and sends it back.

I anticipate the last move made by Grindelwald, having seen it copied by his followers on several times on the way to this confrontation and counter it by using his want to lift some the rubble we had created during our battle to defend myself from the needles. Most of the needles are diverted by my floating rubble but a couple of them breaks through towards the left of me and punctures my left shoulder.

The pain sears through me, but I cast it aside and go after Grindelwald, who disapparates again. He suddenly reappears in the crater and though I try to send another spell, he disappears again. He apparates ten feet away from his last spot and I fruitlessly try to throw another spell which he avoids by disapparating again. He repeats the suit a several times, obviously just to toy with me, to anger me, until I am finally able to hit him with a spell to stop his apparition.

We stare at each other, he with a burning intensity in his eyes and I with a burning intensity in my heart. But the burning is not anger, its sorrow. As I look into his bloodshot, angry eyes, I realize one way or another, my former best friend will have to die.

_Boom!_

A muggle weapon, a bomb, drops from the sky. I spy a muggle contraption I recall is a fighter plane fly above us through the sky. Grindelwald casts the silver shield around him again and then, pointing his wand towards the fighter plane, yells, "_Imperio!_"

The fighter plane changes course and starts heading towards us. As he gets closer I realize that I was wrong. It is heading towards _me_.

By the time I realize this, I am forced to go against my better judgment and, knowing full well what would happen as soon as I cast the spell, say, "_Reducto!_"

The extreme force of the spell disintegrates the fighter plane. The spell also triggers what I knew it must. The explosives that the plane contained are set off, although not as powerful as the might be if they he actually be detonated.

I cast a quick Shield Charm right before the plane hits the crater and then disapparate. I apparate back where I had left. I am fine however, I see that the explosives had destroyed the silver shield Grindelwald had conjured and hit him with full force.

I mutter a couple of charms to clear the smoke and put out the fires. Afterwards, I begin to walk over when I see that the Elder Wand is no longer in Grindelwald's possession. I see it fly into the sky and as if it belonged there, land almost softly in my hand.

I keep going to Grindelwald. When I arrive I see his flesh is burned and is bubbling as if he were made of hot wax. His face distorted and his hair burning leaving only a small patch at the back of his head still remaining. His eyes are fixed in terror. Not just terror, I noticed, but also confusion. Confusion at why he still lives while the man who defeated him stands over his helpless, disgusting body.

"You were wrong. You could be defeated." I say simply. I wonder if he could tell what I was actually feeling. Horror. Not because of the state of his body, but of what I had caused. I nearly brought another death. And for a second, a mere second, I thought it was good. Revenge for my sister. But I abandon those thoughts. This man, no matter what he had done was human, and had at least once a long time ago, had a little decency.

To the surprise of onlookers, I call upon Fawkes, my faithful phoenix. He appears in a flash of fire at my side. He looks at me and immediately knows what I want him to do. He stands over Grindelwald and begins to cry. He cries for several minutes and drops tears all over Grindelwald's body. His body no longer bubbles and his skin goes from red to a more pinkish hue. He has burn scars over his body, but with Fawkes' help, they will disappear eventually.

Minerva and a French Auror I know only as Clément use their wands to levitate Grindelwald who was in a state of near unconsciousness off of the ground and bring him out of the crater. I follow and address the followers of Grindelwald.

"You're leader is defeated." I say it with no happiness. Sadness is now apparent in my voice but they take know note as they see me hold up the Elder Wand, and realize that the ultimate power Grindelwald had had was now gone and in the hands of the enemy "You will go back to your countries and face your ministries for your crimes. You will serve time and eventually, one day, be given another chance. Remember what you leader did here today. Remember his greed and arrogance. Learn from his mistakes and I promise you that one day, you will be welcomed back into society once more. But for now, we have victory. You are defeated."

I say the last sentence with a false gusto to excite my allies with the victory. But I know the truth. Even though as a whole we have victory, I don't. I now own the meanest of the Hallows. I had always been more interested in obtaining the Resurrection Stone, but all I get is the Elder Wand, the one that draws on my lust for power. There will be some who might also believe the legend of the Hallows, trace it back to me. But I promise myself never to let that happen. One day, I will die and I plan on taking the power of the wand with me.

That is the first of my non-victory. The second is the defeat of Grindelwald. I never wished for him to turn out like this. He had once been my best friend, and now turned out to be my greatest enemy. But the truth was, he wasn't my enemy. Not really. It was just that, when it finally came down to it, I was the one who could and had to stop him.

I approach the floating body of Grindelwald. "You-you didn't kill me?" he asks weakly, as though in a dream.

"Murder doesn't become me." I say simply, still trying to mask my sadness. "I don't wish to kill you."

"What do we do with 'im?" asks Clément, looking at Grindelwald with a look of disgust, as if he was going to spit on him.

I look at Grindelwald's damaged body again. Before I can say anything on the matter of his fate, a young Auror I knew personally from teaching him at Hogwarts not too long ago, Alastor Moody, growls, "Nuremgard. He built the prison to house his enemies, now it will house himself."

"Al…bu…s" Grindelwald says for the first time since our first parting of ways, barely able to keep consciousness.

I know that nothing will have changed now. I will guard the Elder Wand as best I could. In the horrible event that darkness would ever rise again I will be ready. And next time I will think it through.

I turn back to look at Grindelwald's rejuvenated body. His legs slightly shake and his back, which Fawkes had not yet healed, a bloody mess. But the saddest of his body is evident on his face. Beneath his sallow eyes, a single tear slowly seeps from his eyes.

"_They say he showed remorse in later years, alone in his cell at Nurmengard. I hope that it is true." _


End file.
